Renowned physicist Dr Franck Delplace joins ESI's scientific committee

Paris, France – 27 September, 2011 –ESI Group, pioneer and world-leading solution provider invirtual prototypingfor manufacturing industries, announces the arrival of renowned physicist Dr Franck Delplace as a new Member of ESI’s Scientific Committee.

“I am delighted to join ESI’s Scientific Committee”declaredDr Delplace,“and am looking forward to a fruitful, industry focused exchange with peer scientists. For sure my knowledge and experience will help ESI make further R&D advances in Virtual Prototyping and spur future innovation.”

Launched in December 2005, ESI ’s Scientific Committee consists of an academic network of experts establishing a crucial link between the scientific community and the rapidly evolvingvirtual prototypingmarket. The role of ESI’s Scientific Committee is to ensure that ESI’s investment decisions in R&D are determined in light of academic and industrial trends worldwide. Chaired byDr Vincent Chaillou, Chief Operating Officer ofESI Group, and administered byDr Argiris Kamoulakos, Scientific Director ofESI Group, the Scientific Committee is composed of 8 world-renown scientists in a wide range of disciplines, encompassing solid to fluid mechanics and electromagnetics. They are complemented byESIin-house counterpart experts. The committee meets four times a year and actively supports the exchange of scientific knowledge through white papers, publications, seminars and training.

With his impressive academic background,Dr Franck Delplacewill contribute towards several key topics of strategic focus forESI. He holds Masters Degrees in Food Process Engineering and in Computing and Automation, both from the University of Lille, a PhD in Mechanics and Energetics from the University of Nancy, and completed Post-Doctorate studies in Chemical Engineering at the University of Birmingham.

Renowned for his expertise in fluid mechanics,Dr Delplaceis globally recognized as having pioneered a new view in theoretical physics in his work entitled “Open door on 21st century physics”, in which he unifies general relativity and quantum physics through a fluid mechanics analogy. His professional career ledDr Delplaceto work atINRA(French National Institute for Agricultural Research), where he specialized in fluid mechanics and thermal sciences and authored several papers in international scientific journals, predominantly on topics related to non-Newtonian fluid mechanics and the formation of deposits on heat transfer surfaces.

Dr Delplacealso worked in the field of water treatment engineering atSUEZ Group, where he acted as an expert in corrosion, scaling and water chemistry for industrial applications. In addition to his impressive educational and professional background,Dr Delplaceis currently Head of the Energy Savings Department at the French Electricity Board (EDF Group) where he liaises with key EDF customers.

“On behalf of ESI’s Scientific Committee I would like to say how pleased we are to welcome Dr Franck Delplace onto our team. His invaluable expertise in non-Newtonian fluid mechanics coupled with his strong understanding of current industrial challenges will undoubtedly help ESI develop virtual prototyping solutions, to the benefit of our clients and the scientific community as a whole. I would like to personally thank Dr Delplace for accepting to take on this new responsibility,” declaredDr Argiris Kamoulakos, Scientific Director of ESI Group and Secretary of ESI’s Scientific Committee.

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About ESI Group

ESIis a pioneer and world-leading solution provider in virtual prototyping for manufacturing industries that takes into account the physics of materials.ESIhas developed an extensive suite of coherent, industry-oriented applications to realistically simulate a product’s behavior during testing, to fine-tune manufacturing processes in accordance with desired product performance, and to evaluate the environment’s impact on performance.ESI’s solutions fit into a single collaborative and open environment for End-to-End Virtual Prototyping, thus eliminating the need for physical prototypes during product development. The company employs about 850 high-level specialists worldwide covering more than 30 countries. ESI Group is listed in compartment C of NYSE Euronext Paris. For further information, visitwww.esi-group.com.

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Céline Gallerne

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